Sony

If you’re reading this blog then you know who Miles Morales, the lead hero of Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, is. But take a moment to really stop and consider just how much you know about Miles. What are his hopes and dreams? What are the things that define his personality? Who is he? The cyclical nature of comics books meant that for all of Marvel’s fanfare about making characters like Captain America a black man, Thor a woman, and Hulk a Korean-American teenaged boy, there was little doubt that eventually, they would all return those monikers to the white men who originally held them. Miles held onto the Spider-Man title for a good long while, but with Peter Parker’s return to the spotlight, it’s become clear that Marvel intends for him to be the headlining web-slinger, even though Miles does not (yet) have a new code name. But in Sony’s upcoming Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse film, Miles is the hero of the story, something … [Read more...] about Is Sony’s Chance to Finally Define Who Miles Morales Is

Half a decade ago, a new kid named Sony made up a game called “full-frame mirrorless,” and has spent the last five years dunking on everybody else. At first, the cool kids thought this game was dumb and they were happy to let Sony play by itself. Then, as the game caught on, old veterans were suddenly scrambling to get in. Well, Nikon finally got in, and while its first effort isn’t perfect, it’s really pretty damn good. As a refresher, a couple months ago Nikon announced its first full-frame mirrorless cameras: The 24.5 megapixel Z6 and the higher-end, 45.7 megapixel Z7. Both cameras use Nikon’s brand new Z Mount system and have lenses being made especially for them (just a few at launch, but more will be rolling out over the next few years). The Z7, which this is a review of, is made to compete directly with Sony’s 42.4 megapixel A7R III, and really, with Nikon’s own D850. It’s for pro (or aspiring pro) photographers for whom resolution … [Read more...] about Nikon Z7 Review: A Worthy Mirrorless Contender, But Not a Sony Killer

Sony's upcoming S1 (left) and S2 tablets, slated for release in September 2011. Image courtesy of Sony. Design and specifications are subject to change without notice. In the 14 months after the iPad's April 2010 launch, Apple sold 25 million of its new tablets [source: Hughes]. Although the iPad was the first to enter the race, a number of competitors are giving it a run for its money -- and before 2011 comes to a close, Japan-based Sony will be one of them. The company plans to release two tablet models, both of which are known only by their internal code names: S1 and S2. The slate-style S1 will feature a 9.4-inch (23.9-centimeter) screen that aims to hit a middle ground between the iPad's 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) screen and the HTC Flyer's 7-inch (17.8-centimeter) screen. Unlike its competitors, the Sony S1 will deviate from the rectangle mold by being more rounded and slightly thicker on one end. This will result in a profile that looks a bit like an exclamation mark … [Read more...] about How Sony Tablets Will Work

Sony president and CEO Kazuo Hirai delivers a keynote address in front of an image of a Sony Betamax at the 2014 International CES conference. Ethan Miller/Getty Images When Sony recently announced that it would retire the ill-fated Betamax line of video cassettes in March 2016, the general public response was something along the lines of "What's a Betamax?" And for those of us who remember the days when movie rental stores where divided into two sections – one for Betamax and the other for VHS — it was a moment of nostalgia and bewilderment. Most of us probably didn't realize that those clunky cassettes were even still being made. As it turns out, while Sony stopped producing Beta recorders in 2002, it's still made a number of cassettes every year since then. A circa-1978 advertisement for the Sony Betamax video cassette player. Tom Simpson/Flickr Creative Commons Betamax's official retirement comes 40 years after the Beta cassette format's introduction, and … [Read more...] about Sony Will Retire Betamax in 2016. Wait, That Hasn’t Happened Yet?